KARACHI, Dec 24: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Friday ordered complete overhauling of the prevailing medico-legal system in the province.

Presiding over a meeting in the Governor's House, he ordered setting up of a committee, headed by the secretary for health, to submit its suggestions in this regard within 15 days. The committee will include experts from the health, law and police departments.

The meeting discussed various ways to reactivate the medico-legal system in the province on the basis of professional efficiency and transparency. The health secretary told the meeting that proficient medico-legal officers required for this field were reluctant to join it.

The meeting was also told that since the creation of the country, this was the first time that a governor of the province had taken any serious step for improvement in this field.

Dr Ibad stressed on introducing wide-ranging reforms in the medico-legal system. He said a summary should be prepared and sent to the finance department for approval regarding raising salaries of the medico-legal officers.

The governor also ordered special training of medico-legal professionals through the Dow University of Health Sciences. He regretted that all state-run hospitals in Karachi were without a cold storage facility in their mortuaries. He called for steps to set up cold storage facilities in the three government hospitals of the city.

Dr Ibad also instructed the officials concerned to establish a DNA-test facility in the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases. At present these tests are carried out only in Lahore. He also asked for availing the DNA-test facility available in private healthcare centres of the city and said the government hospital staff should get necessary training in these institutions.

He instructed the officials to complete all medical tests and X-ray reports required in court cases within a month. He asked for linking the medico-legal department with the pathology departments.

The meeting decided to link medical students of private colleges to the police surgeons for post-mortem. This will lead to transparency due to the presence of medical students and their teachers during the post-mortem, and also help the department earn funds.

The governor asked the committee to include betterment of the service-structure of doctors, consider allowing prominent private hospitals to carry on post-mortems, and review available financial and manpower resources in the provincial healthcare structure.

The meeting was told that in the medico-legal cases, medical treatment could be provided on letter from the CPLC if letter from the police was not available.

Those who attended the meeting included Sindh Adviser Faisal Malik, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan, Principal Secretary Akhtar Zamin, Law Secretary Ghulam Nabi Shah, Health Secretary Dr Naushad Shaikh, Additional Advocate-General Qazi Khalid Ali, IG Syed Kamal Shah, CPLC Chief Sharrafuddin Memon, Additional Secretary for Interior Rasheed Alam, Police Surgeon Dr Irfan Qureshi, Additional Secretary for Health Dr Shafqat Abbassi and Zia Medical University official Dr Asim. - PPI